Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman to Step Down

[DonHelbig]

Richard A. Zimmerman, president and CEO of Six Flags, will step down from his role by the end of 2025, the company announced.

https://themeparksbydon.com/six-flags-ceo-richard-zimmerman-to-step-down-by-end-of-2025/

[beastfan11]

Kind of reminds me of that scene in Titanic where everybody starts jumping off the boat because the stock price is sinking. 

[CoasterJack]

Yeah overall, another rough quarterly report. What stuck out to me was that their debt interest payment for just Q2 was more than what they brought in for income (profit) the same quarter, which isn't something great as a business. My hope is someone like Jeffrey Siebert or another Matt Ouimet with Universal or Disney experience can come in and improve the overall sentiment of the community about the company.

Ultimately, if it were me at the top, I think this highlights that debt is SF's biggest issue currently. If it were up to me, I think the company needs to limit additions, focus on marketing the ride lineups and experiences already found at the parks. Many of these parks have awesome slides, water rapids rides, carousels, antique cars, log flumes, thrilling coasters, KI's nighttime show, Cedar Point's beach, etc. I think at this point, money spent on staffing and keeping parks presentable is more important than any addition for long term growth and improving the reputation of the company. I think some park improvements, bathrooms, painting, small restaurant upgrades will have a more lasting impact on the guest experience that can prevent some negative experiences, improving word of mouth and returning visitors.

If the company said they were going to invest a billion over these two or three years. I think you slim down some of those ride additions, put that 200-300 million towards debt repayments, paying down the principal of the loan, not just making minimum interest payments. Some of the park improvements like seen at SFMM's waterpark have been noticed and reviews have highlighted how much it improved the experience, and I think they should keep some of those. Bathrooms aren't the most exciting, but it is something mentioned negatively in almost any review. I get the chain is spending a lot to get people in the door and excited, but if it's hurting your operations and cleanliness just to be able to afford a new ride, I don't know if it's worth it.

 

I'd love to hear any thoughts anyone else has on this matter, I love hearing other ideas 

[jzarley]

^ definitely agree with you—their debt is their biggest albatross right now. The product is (or can fairly easily be made) fine. There may be some upcoming general financial headwinds on the horizon that could cause general market slowdowns, but it’s not like they haven’t been thru recessions many, many times before. Plus, if the economy does continue to sputter it will most likely cause the Fed to lower rates, which may give them the opportunity to refinance some of that debt at better rates—it’s not a solve for their problem, but could help incrementally.

Meanwhile, Disney reported strong numbers for their Experiences division this morning as Comcast did a few days earlier. It will be interesting to see what United Parks (I *still* have a hard time saying that ) reports on their next earnings release—see if it’s more of an Orlando market strength thing or more destination vs. regional parks thing.

[disco2000]

2 hours ago, CoasterJack said:

Yeah overall, another rough quarterly report. What stuck out to me was that their debt interest payment for just Q2 was more than what they brought in for income (profit) the same quarter, which isn't something great as a business.

But according to social media posts, it is OK to steal from them (free refills, soda in water cups, share FL bands, etc) because they are a billion dollar company....

Granted those alone probably are not the reason, but it can't help the situation either.

[Oldiesmann]

Weather was definitely a factor - even BGW was dead when I went in late June (granted, during the middle of the week, but still) - but I doubt it was the only factor. It'll be interesting to see what attendance figures look like for the rest of the year - especially once the weather stays cool for more than a week.

[brenthodge]

12 hours ago, CoasterJack said:

Yeah overall, another rough quarterly report. What stuck out to me was that their debt interest payment for just Q2 was more than what they brought in for income (profit) the same quarter, which isn't something great as a business. My hope is someone like Jeffrey Siebert or another Matt Ouimet with Universal or Disney experience can come in and improve the overall sentiment of the community about the company.

Ultimately, if it were me at the top, I think this highlights that debt is SF's biggest issue currently. If it were up to me, I think the company needs to limit additions, focus on marketing the ride lineups and experiences already found at the parks. Many of these parks have awesome slides, water rapids rides, carousels, antique cars, log flumes, thrilling coasters, KI's nighttime show, Cedar Point's beach, etc. I think at this point, money spent on staffing and keeping parks presentable is more important than any addition for long term growth and improving the reputation of the company. I think some park improvements, bathrooms, painting, small restaurant upgrades will have a more lasting impact on the guest experience that can prevent some negative experiences, improving word of mouth and returning visitors.

If the company said they were going to invest a billion over these two or three years. I think you slim down some of those ride additions, put that 200-300 million towards debt repayments, paying down the principal of the loan, not just making minimum interest payments. Some of the park improvements like seen at SFMM's waterpark have been noticed and reviews have highlighted how much it improved the experience, and I think they should keep some of those. Bathrooms aren't the most exciting, but it is something mentioned negatively in almost any review. I get the chain is spending a lot to get people in the door and excited, but if it's hurting your operations and cleanliness just to be able to afford a new ride, I don't know if it's worth it.

 

I'd love to hear any thoughts anyone else has on this matter, I love hearing other ideas 

I think the problem is they arent really providing a compelling reason to WANT to go to 40 different parks, just the ability TO go. So many parks have cut hours, eliminated events, scaled back events, moved to corporate identity strategies etc that theres not really a reason to travel to another park. Outside of the enthusiast community or the coaster stat lovers, few people probably really see the benefit of traveling to these parks. 

I feel like NOW is the time more than every to highlight the differences more than the sameness. It's the time to bring in local beers, locally sourced ingredients, regional food favorites. It's time to use the original logos (with "a six flags park" as a small tag line. Its time to even rename the ones that are just "Six Flags over wherever" to something more compelling. Its time to market them with a great story about how these competitors are now one great family of parks. Its time to do data mining to target wood coaster lovers with the message "You love Mystic Timbers, You should check out American Thunder at SixFlags St Louis- only 8 hours from Cincinnati. Here's a 20% coupon for any Mystic Timbers AND American Thunder logo items, so you can rep your love of the wood to everyone you meet" It's goofy, but its fun. Really lean into how DIFFERENT all of these parks are and HOW LUCKY you are to be able to enjoy all of the history, the memories and the great times with one family of amazing parks.

Cut most cap expenses for the next few years and instead of adding half decent rides late in the season, market the great things you have. If they arent great parks, MAKE them great. Give me a reason outside of "hey we are driving kinda close to Carrowinds and they are open for 2 more hours" to make the trip - REWARD me and reward my efforts. Build a loyalty program around how many parks you have visited. They have an unbelievable product and opporunity to leverage it, they just refuse to learn from, and keep making the same bottom-line focussed mistakes.

[DoomPlague]

11 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

I feel like NOW is the time more than every to highlight the differences more than the sameness. It's the time to bring in local beers, locally sourced ingredients, regional food favorites. It's time to use the original logos (with "a six flags park" as a small tag line. Its time to even rename the ones that are just "Six Flags over wherever" to something more compelling. Its time to market them with a great story about how these competitors are now one great family of parks. Its time to do data mining to target wood coaster lovers with the message "You love Mystic Timbers, Did you know the company that designed it is from Cincinnati? You should check out American Thunder at SixFlags St Louis- only 8 hours from Cincinnati. Here's a 20% coupon for any Mystic Timbers AND American Thunder logo items, so you can rep your love of the wood to everyone you meet" It's goofy, but its fun. Really lean into how DIFFERENT all of these parks are and HOW LUCKY you are to be able to enjoy all of the history, the memories and the great times with one family of amazing parks.

 

Are you confusing GCI with Gravity Group or Skyline Attractions with Skyline Chili?

[Leland Wykoff]

Even the hometown paper, The Sandusky Register, is stating Zimmerman was let go due to poor performance:

https://sanduskyregister.com/news/616158/six-flags-ousts-ceo/

Once again Cedar/Six blamed 'the weather':for dismal performance.  This after touting the merger as the hedge against weather events.  

 

Good riddance to Richard.  He, and his team, mucked up the transition and integration of Six Flags from day one.  One poor decision following upon poor decision.  

Much of the promised cost cutting and savings was accomplished by simply removing significant Park assets and rides without warning.  This has resulted in reluctance of guests to purchase full priced season passes as they have no confidence in what rides, shows, and seasonal events will still be in offered the parks next season.

People are being asked to buy a pig-in-a-poke.  And the result is they aren't buying.  

At least the board took action rather quickly.  With luck a qualified successor will be quickly located and hired and 'Lil Dick can be sent packing early.

Pitiful.

 

[KIBeast]

The chain, as a whole, needs to focus on guest experience and operations. Seems to me that this has taken a back seat, chain wide. Kings Island seems to be more along the lines of the exception, but even they aren't what they used to be. 

Now, I have not lost hope with the merger. I knew that they would experience some growing pains. Zimmerman was just not a good choice. As others have mentioned, they need someone similar to Matt Ouimet to step into that leadership position. I still think we won't know the actual results of the merger for 5 years. However, we can take notice of when the chain is being moved in the right direction.

[SPONGEBOB_FAN_97]

I been thinking:

The people (we), we need our voice heard. I’m tired of these corporate guys coming in and being blah blah synergy this cost cutting that, more like how bout you shut your mouth and build us a T. rex?  (Eeeeessssh)

Thats why I’m proposing, industry legend Don Helbig takes a hold of the ship as the CEO of Six Flags. See Don knows the parks, he would be approachable, his office is international street for crying out loud! Concerned about food quality? All corporate employees are given a dining plan and that’s the only thing they can use tk eat year round. Try cutting back hours and food quality now…

Rides…I mean Don rode The Racer a couple hundred times back in the day, I don’t think anyone knows rides better than this guy. 

Now for the COO, we’re going out of the industry, and we’re bringing in Ryan Suhr. This guy works in finance, he can crunch some numbers and use blender, unstoppable. 
 

Anyways these guys would totally change the game kinda like that scene in step brothers when the two guys interview for jobs.

thoughts?

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

3 hours ago, brenthodge said:

I feel like NOW is the time more than every to highlight the differences more than the sameness. It's the time to bring in local beers, locally sourced ingredients, regional food favorites. It's time to use the original logos (with "a six flags park" as a small tag line. Its time to even rename the ones that are just "Six Flags over wherever" to something more compelling. Its time to market them with a great story about how these competitors are now one great family of parks.

It's either get this started for 2026 or hope you're still around to do it when (if) the situation fully improves. I'm a huge advocate for dropping the brand name from a lot of the parks entirely. The largest issue they'd have to deal with is making sure the trademarks are up to date and processed for each name after dropping the "Six Flags" from it. Frankly, I think all of the park trademarks need to be cleaned up in general.

Once things stabilize/the will becomes available, I'd start out by letting the top-tier parks have more unique logos and identities, then create a new and consistent branding identity for the lower tiers of parks, and then keep working to improve the experiences in each park. If it continues to be a massive company some more variation amongst the parks would help out the vibes in each park. One of my biggest issues with Six Flags has been that they treat themselves as one giant brand with multiple locations instead of multiple parks that sit under the same roof. 

 

Zimmerman stepping down will hopefully allow someone else to come in and at least stabilize things. He's not entirely in control of things, but as CEO he hasn't entirely been great at leading the combined company. Six Flags might get a breath of fresh air when a new CEO is finally appointed, and hopefully it will be someone who is able to finalize the merging efforts and get through the rest of the growing pains. The 2026 announcements need to be made, the new apps and websites need to be released, and the company as a whole needs someone at the helm who will be able to make a much-needed course correction. 

[KI FANATIC 37]

On an unrelated note, Pantherian opened this afternoon after being down all season, and no announcement on social media advertising its reopening.  What kind of PR is that? Truly pathetic. 

[BeeastFarmer]

Our new CEO:

 

 

[jzarley]

On 8/6/2025 at 9:55 AM, jzarley said:

Meanwhile, Disney reported strong numbers for their Experiences division this morning as Comcast did a few days earlier. It will be interesting to see what United Parks (I *still* have a hard time saying that ) reports on their next earnings release—see if it’s more of an Orlando market strength thing or more destination vs. regional parks thing.

Looks like the SeaWorld parks were a mixed bag…attendance was up (according to the comments on the call, a good amount in Orlando even after the opening of Epic) but revenue was down. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-parks--resorts-inc-reports-second-quarter-and-first-six-months-2025-results-302524044.html

[brenthodge]

15 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

Once things stabilize/the will becomes available, I'd start out by letting the top-tier parks have more unique logos and identities, then create a new and consistent branding identity for the lower tiers of parks, and then keep working to improve the experiences in each park. If it continues to be a massive company some more variation amongst the parks would help out the vibes in each park. One of my biggest issues with Six Flags has been that they treat themselves as one giant brand with multiple locations instead of multiple parks that sit under the same roof. 

 

YES! Ive tried to figure out which parks exactly would be "Flagship" parks, but there needs to be maybe 6 that have that status. The as you said create a unified brand for those lower tier parks. This wouldn't just be based on size. These would form almost the "bread and butter filler" that have light theming, more unifor food offerings, bulk bought things like cups, bags without park-specific branding. 

 

12 hours ago, KI FANATIC 37 said:

On an unrelated note, Pantherian opened this afternoon after being down all season, and no announcement on social media advertising its reopening.  What kind of PR is that? Truly pathetic. 

and THAT is the kind of thing that should be promoted in this market as an advantage ot having the all park passport. Visit this amazing "new" coaster, just a day drive away. Again why are they on one hand promoting they have "40 parks" then on the other hand telling no one anything about them?

[disco2000]

6 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

and THAT is the kind of thing that should be promoted in this market as an advantage ot having the all park passport. Visit this amazing "new" coaster, just a day drive away. Again why are they on one hand promoting they have "40 parks" then on the other hand telling no one anything about them?

Maybe KD won't be part of their portfolio next year 

[IndyGuy4KI]

10 hours ago, disco2000 said:

Maybe KD won't be part of their portfolio next year 

I know you kid, but please don't say that. It is such a gem of a park to loose.

[DiamondbackFan]

11 hours ago, disco2000 said:

Maybe KD won't be part of their portfolio next year 

They are selling off the unused land around the park, but Kings Dominion isn't going anywhere.  The non core parks that could be sold are properties they own that are not one of the 15 largest parks.

[disco2000]

2 hours ago, DiamondbackFan said:

They are selling off the unused land around the park, but Kings Dominion isn't going anywhere.  The non core parks that could be sold are properties they own that are not one of the 15 largest parks.

I was joking, but again we never know what may happen.

Maybe they have to include a bigger park in the mix of a package of smaller parks to sell to entice a buyer and KD would fit that bill nicely.

Bankruptcy could split the properties.

Maybe a developer is looking at the unused land around KI they are selling and offers a number for the park they can't refuse.  The land may be worth more as something else than a park to a developer.

We really don't know.

But of the "top" parks in the chain, I think KD is the most vulnerable one.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I'd think most of the unused land around Kings Island would be harder to develop than it is worth. A nicely-sized neighborhood could probably fit to the east of the Associate Dorms and south of the new Kings High School area, but the entrance(s) to it would be super odd to handle. Then as you get closer to the river you get into flood zones and everything. Anyone who moves into that area would also have to deal with the Kings schools traffic/activities in addition to having Kings Island in their backyard. 

If they're looking to sell a larger park to another chain I'd hope they could choose something that isn't a former KECO park either. 

Bankruptcy would be an interesting time to live through. I wonder if they'd force a rule where potential buyers cannot buy two parks that are in the same state/region. That would at least separate Kings Island and Cedar Point from competing in the same chain. 

[Swiftdrawer]

After reading this thread as it is now, I’m really thinking the Six Flags board members could all benefit from playing the RCT game scenarios. See what it’s like to be in charge of a park all by yourself with some advice from notifications or RCT3’s park inspector: building things, hiring and managing staff and giving them patrol routes for more efficiency, etc. Some of the scenarios are real tricky too. I say the RCT scenarios for a reason. It’s not just because I’m most familiar with them(especially RCT3’s) but from what I’m seeing in the few scenarios on the original Planet Coaster game I’ve played so far, their scenario challenges just don’t hold up that well by comparison. Hopefully the new CEO actually knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the industry and is devoted to coasters and such.

[RollerColt]

13 hours ago, Swiftdrawer said:

After reading this thread as it is now, I’m really thinking the Six Flags board members could all benefit from playing the RCT game scenarios. See what it’s like to be in charge of a park all by yourself with some advice from notifications or RCT3’s park inspector: building things, hiring and managing staff and giving them patrol routes for more efficiency, etc. Some of the scenarios are real tricky too. I say the RCT scenarios for a reason. It’s not just because I’m most familiar with them(especially RCT3’s) but from what I’m seeing in the few scenarios on the original Planet Coaster game I’ve played so far, their scenario challenges just don’t hold up that well by comparison. Hopefully the new CEO actually knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the industry and is devoted to coasters and such.

The biggest thing the board needs to realize is that a lot of people today are willing to actually pay more for better experiences and higher quality. Especially those of us with families.

[IndyGuy4KI]

Can we get someone from Herschend? I know it is family company not a public one, but they seem to have their stuff together. 

[Swiftdrawer]

8 hours ago, RollerColt said:

The biggest thing the board needs to realize is that a lot of people today are willing to actually pay more for better experiences and higher quality. Especially those of us with families.

*gestures to things like the character dining at some Disney restaurants* You are spot on. It’s often expected that the more you pay, the better experience you’ll get. That’s an obvious standard.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

10 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Can we get someone from Herschend? I know it is family company not a public one, but they seem to have their stuff together. 

"Dear Ms. Parton, have you ever been to Ohio?" 

 

12 hours ago, RollerColt said:

The biggest thing the board needs to realize is that a lot of people today are willing to actually pay more for better experiences and higher quality. Especially those of us with families.

I heard on a recent GreenTagged podcast that some of the decisions Six Flags made in 2025 are consistent with a company that is "cash poor" and needs cash now [Call JG Wentworth, 877-CASHNOW]. Someone who understands the above point would probably be willing/able to rake in cash while steering the company in a direction like a Herschend executive would. 

[RollerColt]

15 hours ago, Swiftdrawer said:

*gestures to things like the character dining at some Disney restaurants* You are spot on. It’s often expected that the more you pay, the better experience you’ll get. That’s an obvious standard.

Precisely. 

Did I overpay staying at the Grand Helios for my family's stay at Epic Universe? Yes. Did I still do it and have a great experience? Also yes. Visiting Disney and Universal is extremely expensive. It's also amazing, and addicting. I'm already saving up to take my family back in 2 years. That's how much we adored the parks. 

I used to have that feeling with Kings Island. I didn't feel it this year for sure.

I, as a consumer, am not saying I want us to be nickel and dimed and basically have our wallets stolen. I'm just saying we're okay with paying a bit more for better investments in quality. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Guests won't see it as nickel-and-diming so much if the cost is actually baked into the tickets. Same goes for if the experiences they are paying extra for are actually worth paying for. Kings Island and Cedar Point could have probably gotten away better with the Haunted Attractions Pass if they got more than two new haunted attractions (Cedar Point actually only got The Conjuring, no new mazes). I bet even some simple maze re-naming would have helped the whole situation as well.